SuseADoodle's "Ant Thymes"

Wordless Wednesday -- Seen in the Backyard

2008-07-02T23:28:00.001-05:00

Recent Photos -- Como Park Conservatory -- Orchids

2008-04-28T02:08:00.000-05:00

The Silent Killer - Inflammatory Breast Cancer

2007-09-23T17:08:00.001-05:00

Camy Tang is having a contest -- you could win an iPod and a BASKET OF BOOKS!

2007-09-19T19:15:00.000-05:00

Camy Tang's first book, Sushi for One, just came out. To celebrate (and to generate interest in the book) she is hostessing an awesome contest. The grand prize, first place winner, will receive an 8 GB iPod! Plus a lot of books (I didn't count them all ...)

For more information, and to enter, go here:
http://www.camytang.com/contest.html

You will need two things
- you'll need my email address to put in the contest entry form -- SuseADoodle at gmail.com. Please be sure to use that, okay?
- a Yahoo ID so you can join her Yahoo Group, Camy's Loft. And you will WANT to join her Yahoo group because every week she gives away books!

An author who whole-heartedly believes writers are readers too!

The contest runs till October 31, 2007.

The book sounds like a wonderful read. It is on my list of "GET THIS SOON!" Books and I've scheduled an afternoon to read it cover-to-cover. Want to know a little more about it? Check out:
http://christianfictionblogalliance.blogspot.com/2007/09/sushi-for-one-by-camy-tang.html
or
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0310273986
or
http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=273981&netp_id=479128&event=ESRCN&item_code=WW

Mute Monday -- "Sweet" -- Makes Sweet, Hmm?

2007-09-17T17:23:00.001-05:00

FAIR TRADE CHOCOLATE EVENT

2007-09-15T14:52:00.001-05:00

Who doesn't like chocolate? There are very few people who don't. (They were probably given chocolate as a kid but were told it was calves' liver or something like that.)

Did you know that about half of the world's chocolate is produced with slave labor? For more information, visit http://www.stopthetraffik.org/

If you like to cook and would like to win a goodie bag of Traffik-Free Chocolate, stop over here: http://rkhooks.net/2007/09/03/stop-the-traffik-chocolate-event/

If you participate, stop back here.

In the comments section leave your name and the url to your blog post that you use to enter r k hooks' event, using Traffik-Free Chocolate.

I'll be posting this info about the event at each of my blogs. Feel free to leave your comment and link at each one. (One comment entry per blog please, though.) From all of the comments posted, there will be a random drawing and I'll send out a chocolate-related thank you to three winners.

DREAM ... Share your Talents, too!

2007-09-06T13:15:00.001-05:00

You MUST check out this awesome video that Kay has posted at her blog, Loop de Loops:

http://loopdeloops.blogspot.com/2007/09/dreams-can-come-true.html

Go there NOW! I'll wait. Go, click on the video (after you pause her music -- Jimmy Durante -- well, pause him after you enjoy that ... personally, I love Jimmy's voice :-) but I'm a 60s kid who loved 40s music growing up ...)

DO NOT read anymore of this post until you've watched the video ...

Okay, now I'll tell you that I heard about this on the radio. I listen to classic music radio in the car. Turned on the radio in the middle of a discussion about this.

There was a debate whether it is okay that a non-professional could sing opera so well and whether it was proper that he did so well in a "popular" venue like that. Opera snobs are upset. Music lovers, though, are ecstatic.

Never belittle YOUR dreams! They are a gift. Your talents are yours and are also a gift.

Live While you are Alive!

Create Your Life -- don't let it just happen to you.

Rejoice in each day's blank page to make your mark on.

WW (late addition) -- This one is for Rose :-)

2007-09-06T03:43:00.001-05:00

Wordless Wednesday -- Landed and Posed for the Shot ...

2007-09-05T11:38:00.000-05:00

A few others:

Wordless Wednesday ... "Billy"

2007-08-29T03:27:00.000-05:00

for more info on WORDLESS WEDNESDAY, go to

http://www.wordlesswednesday.com/

Monday Madness (001)

2007-08-28T00:20:00.000-05:00

Here are some weather-related questions ... Thank you for playing and have an awesome week! =)

1. Where you live, what kind of weather (or weather-related tragedy) do you fear the most?

I live on top of a hill, and there are almost no trees of any size on our property. This is in the Upper Midwest. And being a flat-lander from the eat coast, I am not familiar with cloud formations or the weather patterns of this part of the country. So, the scariest weather is tornado or flat-line wind (tornadic-speed wind without the spin).

2. What kind of weather do you MOST enjoy?

Having said that, as long as I am inside, it is going north or south of us but is visible, and I am not out driving in it, I actually enjoy thunder storms. The lightening is amazing as it arcs across the expanse of sky and zaps the ground.

Otherwise, I also enjoy snow as long as I am not out in it or have to go out in it soon. The silence that seems to surround the falling of snow, or the muffling of sounds, is comfortable like a favorite old quilt to sleep under.

3. What kind of weather do you LEAST like to drive in?

Anything that makes it hard to see: rain, snow, sleet, or even the normal everyday weather of dusk!

4. What is the scariest weather-related experience you've had in your lifetime?

While I was a student at the University of Minnesota, I had to take classes during the summer to be able to graduate when I wanted to. So, I took a course in my major, studio ceramics, as a night class. It was during my first six months in Minnesota after moving from New Jersey. I'm used to fire sirens at noon as a daily system test because we still had volunteer fire companies that respond to the "fire whistles." Well, that night, July 1, the sirens went off around 8 PM -- meaning a tornado had been sighted within x-number of miles.

We were in the basement already so there was no where else to go. Then the rain started and well, we ended up with 8-10 inches of water on the floor of the studio (huge double room) where extension cords were under water. When the water first started coming in we ran around and unplugged all the cords we saw. Missed one. (The water would have been deeper but students up the ramp from us in the metal studio filled sandbags and blocked the doors to keep more water from running in.)

One very brave student waded over to the outlet and yanked out the cord.

There were reports of water geysering out of storm drains, cars in water up to their windows, cars floating away.

By the time I left the studio that night around 10:30, other than a puddle here and there, you wouldn't have known the storm had been so bad. There were some homes flooded by a flash flood in one of the Twin Cities' northern suburbs. And on July 3, the Twin Cities outer Metro area had FROST!

The guy I am now married to, lived along a street in residential St. Paul, where flat-line, during that storm, winds hit and took out most of the huge trees that had once lined the street a couple of blocks away. A huge limb landed on his car and crushed it.

5. Share a "weather picture" with us!

Mute Monday has a Theme and I didn't know it ...

2007-08-27T21:54:00.001-05:00

HPIM0581, originally uploaded by Suse B.

The theme is "The City" and here's my idea of a crowded place to be -- as far away from the city as possible.

Mute Monday -- Rubber Stamped Greeting Card

2007-08-27T21:49:00.001-05:00

0004, originally uploaded by Suse B.

Something To Ponder

2007-08-27T21:29:00.000-05:00

I received this in an e-mail today and thought it was worth sharing:

(A) The number of physicians in the U.S. is 700,000

(B) Accidental deaths caused by Physicians per year are 120,000

(C) Accidental deaths per physician is 0.171.

Statistics courtesy of U.S. Dept of Health Human Services.

Now think about this:

Guns:

(A) The number of gun owners in the U.S. is 80,000,000.
(Yes, that's 80 million...)

(B) The number of accidental gun deaths per year, all age groups, is 1,500.

(C) The number of accidental deaths per gun owner is .000188

Statistics courtesy of the FBI

So, statistically, doctors are approximately

9,000 times more dangerous than gun owners.

Remember, "Guns don't kill people, doctors do."

FACT: NOT EVERYONE HAS A GUN,

BUT

ALMOST EVERYONE HAS AT LEAST ONE DOCTOR.

Please alert your friends to this alarming threat

We must ban doctors before this gets completely out of hand!!!!!

Out of concern for the public at large,

I have withheld the statistics on

lawyers

for fear the shock would cause people to panic

and seek medical attention!

It's not a Photo this week ...

2007-08-22T16:40:00.001-05:00

A "Mute Monday"

2007-08-20T20:39:00.001-05:00

And you thought summer was bad where you are ...

2007-08-17T14:56:00.000-05:00

Over at author, Angela Hunt's, blog -- there is this post about how hot it gets in Florida. A "way cool" (oops, sorry about that bad pun) laugh:

http://alifeinpages.blogspot.com/2007/08/its-hot-how-hot-well.html

A Late Entry to Wordless Wednesday because I forgot, fell asleep and thought I didn't have anything as good as last week ... but really this is better

2007-08-16T02:32:00.000-05:00

2007-08-13T12:27:00.000-05:00

Origami to WOW You!

2007-08-10T20:59:00.000-05:00

PAINTED THREADS is listed on the Blogs of Note list at the Blogger Dashboard. WOW! You really need to check out this blog, and especially this post about an origami show that her son's work is part of.

Painted Threads: Ty's Big Night- The Origami Opening

My European City:

2007-08-08T03:07:00.000-05:00

You Belong in Amsterdam

A little old fashioned, a little modern - you're the best of both worlds. And so is Amsterdam.Whether you want to be a squatter graffiti artist or a great novelist, Amsterdam has all that you want in Europe (in one small city).

href=http://www.blogthings.com/whateuropeancitydoyoubelonginquiz/
What European City Do You Belong In?

Wordless Wednesday

2007-08-08T01:35:00.001-05:00

I thought I was shooting a Lily Bud -- I got more ...

2007-08-06T23:50:00.000-05:00

2007-08-06T22:29:00.000-05:00

Haven't added to flickr lately

2007-08-04T23:10:00.000-05:00

It's kind of a bummer, really.

I spent an afternoon and probably into the night going through the recent downloads from my camera and my husband's. I crop, rotate, etc. to get the shots ready to upload to the flickr albums.

Notice how blotchy the shots of the dragonfly are down a couple posts ago? Well, ijit here forgot I had been using the graphics program to build a small animated movie. I forgot I had changed the save compression to deliberately degrade the image resolution while working on the animation. And I saved those hours of work on the photos at a 61% quality instead of the 100% quality .jpg setting.

Now I need to go back, delete all the edited shots, retrieve the originals and do all the editing all over again. :-b

So ... when I get up the energy to go back through all those photos, I will upload a brand new set of photos to flickr. More herons. More sandhill cranes. More hummingbirds. New bitterns and tricolored herons. Lots of sunflowers and lilies. And the dragonflies.

In the meantime, enjoy a respite here or one of my other blogs for a spell.

Why the 4-Way Flashers Were On

2007-08-04T18:55:00.000-05:00

Notes on "Scene at the Pond"

2007-08-04T18:34:00.001-05:00

I had to admit to my husband that -- well, I'm not actually surprised, but -- I am pleaseantly pleased with something that happened this week.

I was heading home from the dentist. He finally put in the final bridgework and took out the awful temporary bridgework that had kept my gums sore and raw for five or six weeks. And it seemed like a good idea to take a different route home than I would usually take. I'm not sure which is the quicker route. Probably the usual route because the route I took offers too many opportunities to observe the Remnants of Nature in Our Midst.

I do live in farm country. Quickly, though, the fields are waking up one fine sunrise to find a "for sale" sign dangling out by the road. The corn, hay or soybeans groan and the ground just wants to crack up and crawl away at the thought of being turned into one more housing plan or gotta-look-like-a-golf-course lawn.

Knowing I would be driving very slowly past the little ponds and marshy areas, looking for turtles and heron, for trumpeter swans floating in the ponds, for sandhill cranes in the fields, and tricolor herons or bitterns in the trees, I turned on the four-way flashers instead of just my blinker light. As I was shooting a heron in one of the larger ponds, the cardinal flew over the hood of my minivan and landed in the tangle of tree and weed next to me. I tried to shoot him but wasn't sure what I got. Was happy when I got home and downloaded the pictures to see that he turned out so well.

As I crawled along about four miles of road, stopping often to shoot through the open windows of the minivan, I actually had three different people stop to make sure everything was okay and that I wasn't broken down.

It's nice to know there are people out there who aren't afraid to stop to help a neighbor in need. Thanks.

Scene at the Pond

2007-08-02T23:03:00.000-05:00

A few thoughts

2007-07-29T21:11:00.000-05:00

I had not intended that Ant Thymes would turn into a site of photos. But with the black background I chose for the set up of the blog, they look pretty good here -- well, I think they do, at least. :-)

Maybe it is good that photos look so good against the background, because not much has been happening to be worth writing about lately.

This week will be a bit busy for me. Today and tomorrow are scheduled to be spent getting ready for the FUNshop on Tuesday night at the home of my friend, Sherry. I've got the catalogue notebooks to prepare, all of the handouts, all of the project kits, plus figure out all of my demonstrations and which will be the make-n-take projects. **sigh** Feels like a lot to get done in so few hours.

It will be a great FUNshop anyhow!

Then Tuesday will be spent at Sherry's and I'll put her to work helping cut the cardstock for the make-n-take projects. We've been getting together for the last few Tuesdays to make cards and have fun.

Wednesday is my last dental visit to get all of the bridge work done! HIP HIP HOORAY! No more "under construction" signs hanging off my swollen lips. Well, it has been almost six weeks since I was there last and the temporary bridge was put in. My lips and gums were swollen and bruised for forever it seemed. All except one tiny spot, along the front of the top gum, has "returned to normal" -- and I hope that the finished bridge fits better and that won't be a problem anymore after Wednesday.

Well, maybe not so busy after all. Just seems like it will be looking at it from this vantage point.

And, the weird thing is, when I am in the middle of needing to get one thing finished, ideas for the next projects come into my head. They demand to be put on paper, at least, because they know that if I don't write them down, they will be forgotten and lost forever. Sometimes, it is worse -- it is not an idea for a craft or art project, but for a writing project. These demanding little nagging bits and pieces require so much attention to get them down on paper with enough detail that they aren't forgotten, or the main point isn't lost, that they often overpower the project at-hand that is under some kind of time constraint.

That happened to me this last week. I felt I needed to go through all my rubber stamp sets to see which ones are actually from The Angel Company (tm) and then, of them, see which ones are in the current catalogue/idea book. To use them for swap projects, for samples to show off at FUNshops, or to use for demonstrations or the A-N-G-E-L or Treasure Hunt Games, they need to be current sets. Every time I sat down with a pile of stamp sets to go through, another new idea would pop into my head for a story I have been working on and demanded to be put into writing so I wouldn't forget it. Does anyone know why that happens?

I have, jokingly, said that it is "avoidance behavior." There are times when it is. I've been working on some writing projects that are non-fiction and sort of mentally draining to work on. I'm not in the habit of consistency with my writing, but attack it with gusto in spurts. I overwhelm myself and burn out on it very quickly. I allow other projects or ideas or pressing matters (like vacuuming, laundry, dirty dishes) to distract me from getting back to work on those projects.

In the case of going through the rubber stamps, it shouldn't take more than half an hour or so. I don't understand why my brain is throwing up road blocks to getting that accomplished. Maybe it is just the concept of "this needs to be done" that just makes my brain rebel. I dunno ...

Well, as soon as I hit "post," I better go look at that pile of stamp sets and see what is what ... oh, wait, there are some dirty dishes in the sink I should take care of first, and then maybe I should run to the grocery store for that milk we need tonight while it isn't busy in the store, and then maybe I ought to see if my hubby needs any laundry done for work tomorrow and then ...

Have a blessed week, ya'll!

Is that an "editorial comment"? ...

2007-07-29T21:06:00.000-05:00

Bzzzzzzzzzzz

2007-07-27T18:24:00.000-05:00

Baby Ent?

2007-07-25T21:17:00.000-05:00

Sighted, Saturday, July 21, along the South Shore of Lake Superior, near Port Wing, Wisconsin ...

Tansy

2007-07-23T14:03:00.000-05:00

Daily Visitors

2007-07-23T01:14:00.000-05:00

Cheesecake, Anyone?

2007-07-15T05:00:00.000-05:00

See more at

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9800339@N06/

Country View

2007-07-14T02:10:00.000-05:00

A visitor

2007-07-13T01:20:00.001-05:00

The Angel Company new Fall 2007 Idea Book & Catalogue has arrived!

2007-06-30T14:30:00.000-05:00

The Angel Company™ new Fall 2007 Idea Book and Catalogue has arrived!

It is brimming full of stamp sets, papers products, inks, tools and embellishments to make any crafter's heart sing and shout, "I just gotta have one of those!" At the very least, it will get your creative juices pumping and flowing and inspire you to Be Alive While Living, to Create Your Life instead of just letting it happen to you, and to Live Purposefully.

Sounds like a lot for one 128 page catalogue, doesn't it?

Why not contact me today to find out more?

SuseADoodle@gmail.com

One of my Front Yard Visitors poses for us ...

2007-06-30T12:36:00.001-05:00

Hummingbirds in my yard are basically a new thing for me. It is a pleasure I enjoy greatly.

As I arrived home a couple of days ago, with my digital camera in tow (I try to remember to take it, fresh batteries and a SD disk with room to spare on it, everywhere I go) ... and as I came up the steps, I heard a loud buzzing. Originally, I had thought these were large wood boring bees. But they aren't.

I have two types of hummingbirds that come to visit. One, when it faces me, is only about an inch and a quarter to an inch and a half tall. When it turns around, and shows off it's tail, it ends up about two and a half inches long. The other one is maybe three and a half to four inches long.

It's the smaller ones that I thought were huge bees at first.

That's what I heard. It came and hovered just a few inches in front of me. Before I could grab the camera from the bag, turn it on, get the lens cap off and lifted into place, the bird had zipped away. I called, quietly, "All I wanted was your picture." It stopped in the structure my husband plans to convert to a greenhouse and sat on a trellis line.

So, I put the camera down and got out the house keys. Then out of the corner of my eye I see another blur.

This time I got a few shots of the larger hummingbird, but wasn't sure if they would be in focus or not. I was afraid I would end up with ugly grass in focus and a blurry bird.

That's two of the shots I got, cropped down quite a bit ...

Ant Thymes are Good Times

2007-06-30T11:36:00.000-05:00

Since I finally got my laptop hooked up to the Internet ...

(braved the wilds of setting up the wireless router myself, instead of waiting and waiting any longer for my Computer Networking Specialist-educated hubby to do it for me -- it has been almost a year since we bought the thing and decided $120 to have the Geeks come install it was just too darn much money)

... I have been pestering friends and family every so often with random-topicked (nice new word I just created, huh?) e-mails that I have been calling "Ant Thymes."

One sister, not knowing I have a new e-mail address, actually put my ramblings into her SPAM folder ...

But that is a different story. :-)

Ant Thymes was actually begun in the early 1990's after I attended a writer's workshop in Colorado Springs. And I wanted an easy way to keep in touch with all of the participants, without needing to try to remember what topics I had covered in a letter to one but not another. I did a lot of rambling-writing, but don't remember if I actually ever mailed out any of those things to the group.

Being an "aunt" from an area of the country that ignored that "u" and just calls the sister of a parent "ant" -- and because the teacher of the writer's workshop had told us a story with the moral of "choose the bugs or the tiger" --

{BTW -- we all chose the tiger, not the bugs, and the teacher told us we were choosing death (or assured failure), when we should be choosing the minor hassles of the bugs -- again, that's another story, too}

"ANT" seemed like a good word to use in the title of my random ramblings on any topic that came to mind. "THYMES" just seemed to add a classy touch to that silly name.

Recently, just a couple of days before getting the laptop on-line, I was finally attempting to unpack some of the boxes of stuff brought here from my mom's house after she died last year. Amongst all the "stuff" in those boxes, I found one of my Ant Thymes rambles and the name was resurrected.

Since I've decided to hit the blog-o-spere with my contributions, I thought "Why not pester the whole world with Ant Thymes instead of just a few people?"

So, viola! We are here and I hope you will come back once in a while too ...